


In Our Footsteps

by happywife416



Series: Collection of Short [8]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Family Feels, Music, Parent-Child Relationship, Proud Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 17:17:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8762026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happywife416/pseuds/happywife416
Summary: Shatter Me by Lindsey Stirling featuring Lzzy Hale





	

"Mamae?" Anora entered her office twirling her violin bow, the accompanying instrument dangling haphazardly in her other hand. Rose looked up with a smile, flitting her fingers across the runes in the magic spheres to silence the music. Anora tapped the crystals with the black wood. "You sing."

"Yes?" She leaned back in her chair with easy grace. 

Anora sighed. "Would you sing a song with me?"

"Really?!" She about shot from her seat but firmly planted herself and spoke more calmly. "I’d love to, which one did you have in mind?"

The girl grinned. "I have my part written, I need you to write the words." Rose tapped a finger against her chin, pondering her eldest. "Something about changing, how it's kind of scary. Like breaking a mirror."

She thought a moment and grabbed a pen and blank paper. "Play what you have written for me?"

 

Duncan pulled on Varric's hand and asked him for the hundredth time that morning. "What are mamae and big sissy doing?" 

It had been many years since he had felt those wards along his skin when he had brushed his knuckles against the door that morning. the breathless excitement the room contained combined with Anora and Rose's matching smiles as they softly pulled notes from the air while they impatiently waited for him to leave was enough for him to honor their request with no questions as he gently guided Annabeth back out of the room and to her morning nap. "They are practicing a song."

Duncan grimaced. "A stuffy one?"

"Has mamae ever sung a stuffy song?" He chuckled.

"When that chantry lady asked her to sing." He bent to investigate another bug. "Mamae even said that was stuffy and." He screwed up his face, the points of his ears waving. "Words I can't say unless I want to go to my room." The boy whistled and his towering mabari came to join them. "Gryphon, is this the bug we need for Aunt Daisy's lesson?" The warhound wagged his stumpy tail.

 

The Hanged Man hadn't been this crowded in several years, Corff's doorman was having to turn people away and Norah was running the wait staff with fiendish efficiency. They had renovated the place when they returned to Kirkwall. It still had a few apartments but they made the stage larger, added a second-floor balcony with booths and a second bar away from the dance floor. The Tethras-Hawkes had a permanent booth, large enough for their extended family and Wicked Grace if they stole a free table. Varric and Duncan settled in with the three mabari taking up the floor at their feet, Annabeth was with Orana and Fenris for the evening. Orana had declared the Hanged Man and a concert was no place for a baby and Rose had laughingly obliged to children’s dear aunty. 

The stage lights came to life with Anora and Rose on the stage. Rose gave a laughing bow as people cheered. A tinkling filled the air and she began to sing. "I pirouette in the dark I see the stars through a mirror Tired mechanical heart Beats 'til the song disappears." Anora took up her violin with a smile. They wove their song with well-practiced grace, throwing themselves into the music with fervor and the crowd held its breath watching them. 

Rose nodded and Anora's voice joined hers as she continued to play. "If I break the glass then I'll have to fly There's no one to catch me if I take a dive I'm scared of changing the days stay the same the world is spinning but only in gray." 

Rose roared out the last lines of the song as only she could, their smiles a twin radiance that lit up the stage. Anora finished out the song and they both bowed amid thunderous applause. Rose wrapped an arm around her daughter. "Kirkwall, I give you the best musical talent I have heard in years. Be as good to her as you were to me. I'm leaving my stage in capable hands." And with that she disappeared from the stage in a puff of purple fade. 

The crowd went wild again as Anora set her bow to the strings and her band joined her. Rose appeared at the table and settled into her seat, face flushed and her smile proud. Varric pulled her close for a kiss. Rose leaned into his embrace as they watched Anora play the crowd and introduce her band. She smiled, a blush of melancholy framing it. "Our dragonling is almost all grown up it seems, Varric."

"Well," he kissed her hair, "we knew that would happen when the daughter of our hearts stole into our life and commandeered the mabari." She nodded, wrapping her fingers with his. 

Duncan scowled over at that them. "What am I?"

Varric smiled as Rose leaned forward to tap his nose. "You are the son of our hearts, kraken."

"But Anora is special."

Varric and Rose gave each other a concerned look. "Do you want to learn to play an instrument?"

"No." he sank lower in his chair. 

Rose offered her hands and he settled his smaller ones in them. "Duncan love, your sister's talents are in magic and music. It's taken her time to find them. You'll find yours."

"Considering you climb better than your mother and already taught Gryphon more commands then what Aveline teaches the guardsmen, you'll have some that are as equally impressive too." Duncan grinned, flashing a missing tooth. "Besides, your sister has no interest in Bianca."

Rose suppressed a chuckle as the boy's eyes widened. "Really, Papae?"

"Really." He cheered with a wild kick of his feet and went to back to watching the show, plans already forming in his mind. 

She brushed a kiss against his cheek with a soft laugh. "Does he get the Carta and Merchants Guild too?"

"Hush". He smiled against her hair. 

Rose leaned her chin in her hands to stare at him. "Anora wants training to be a Bard."

Varric waved down the waitress. "They have training for that? I thought you just apprenticed to your dad. Do you have any more hours in your day?"

"Love, a Bard in the Game." She arched a brow as he blew out slowly. "She's well suited and we know good ones. Training under Leliana and Josie she would be safe, and Marethari wants to as well. They are a well-suited pairing for such things."

He relaced his fingers with hers. "And being with the new Divine would polish off her statecraft since she wants to follow our footsteps and go in to politics."

She nodded before leaning her head on his shoulder. "For her 18th birthday, we should let her go. I went to Val Royeaux younger than that and I don't recommend it. It gives her something to look forward to and a few more years of this." The music started up again, drawing their eyes back to the stage. 

"A few years of this may change her mind. Although," he pulled her close again until she was settled in his lap. "It never changed yours." 

Rose laughed softly before snuggling close. "No, but I did change my mind on the booths. No one has even noticed the mabari." Princess woofed softly watching her human play. 

**Author's Note:**

> Shatter Me by Lindsey Stirling featuring Lzzy Hale


End file.
